Sponge cake is traditionally made by forming a batter containing flour, sugar, eggs and water, along with baking powder to provide leavening and any desired flavouring agents, and baking the batter in an infra-red radiation oven. Such procedures require time to effect leavening. Further, the proportions of ingredients are critical to achieving the required texture. In addition, the baking procedure often forms a hard crust on the cake, which can lead to undesirably hard particles and crust coloration in a comminuted mixture, when the cake is to be used in crumb form.